Water Crisis in Bihar and Its Solutions
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© 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) WATER CRISIS IN BIHAR AND ITS SOLUTIONS Vivekanand Jha Faculty of Commerce & Business Administrative, T. M. Bhagalpur University, Bhagalpur. Abstract: Water crisis has been a huge problem in new millennium in Bihar. The average rainfall in the state for the last 15 years is getting slightly more than 800 mm. whereas the state used to get 1200 to 1500 mm of rain a decade and a half ago. The underground water level in Bihar has recorded a decline. The ground water reserves have also decrease in the state during last three decade. With this, Bihar stands in front of a big water crisis. The main reason for this is the lack of rainwater not reaching the ground water level due to heavy reduction in the amount of rain, damaged canal system, excess irrigation than boring method, lack of rainwater harvesting schemes. In this paper we briefly analysis the water resource situation and give measures solving to the problem of water crisis in Bihar. Keywords : Water crisis, ground water, water resource, Bihar. INTRODUCTION According to known data, about 79.46 lakh hectares of land in the state of Bihar is cultivable, out of which only 56.03 lakh hectares of land is cultivated. That is, according to statistics, there is still 23.16 lakh hectares of arable land lying in Bihar. Irrigation facilities are available on a total of 43.86 lakh hectares of land by various means in the state. About 33.51 lakh hectares of land is irrigated, that is, the benefit of these irrigation facilities does not reach about 13.35 lakh hectares of the targeted land. While 12.44 lakh hectares of agricultural land is completely deprived of irrigation facilities till now. Combining these two disadvantaged categories, about 26 lakh hectares of agricultural land in Bihar is still waiting for irrigation facilities. Agriculture accounts for 18.3 percent of Bihar’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 76 percent of the state’s population is dependent on agriculture. 21 percent of the state’s total agricultural land is in the hands of 2 percent people. The rest is mostly with marginal and poor farmers. At the global level, the effect of disturbing the balance of environment has started to appear in Bihar as well. In the last thirty years the water level situation has worsened in many districts of Bihar, ground water level has fallen by two to three meters in some districts. This situation has occurred here due to excessive emphasis on increasing agricultural production and no concern for groundwater management. The main reason for this decline in ground water is the rapid narrowing of shrubby vegetation areas and water body areas. Demand for ground water has also increased due to increase in population and expansion in agricultural sector. According to the meteorological department data, the average rainfall in the state for the last 15 years is getting slightly more than 800 mm. whereas the state used to get 1200 to 1500 mm of rain a decade and a half ago. With this, Bihar stands in front of a big water crisis. The situation has become more serious in 19 districts of the state. Those districts are Jehanabad, Jamui, Gaya, Nawada, Arwal, Vaishali, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Katihar, Purnia, Begusarai, Khagaria, Bhojpur, Saran, Gopalganj, Sheikhpura and Munger. According to the researchers, the underground water level of districts like Begusarai, Bhagalpur, Samastipur, Katihar and Purnia has recorded a decline of 2-3 meters. Samastipur, Begusarai and Khagaria have been the worst affected due to the fall in ground water. The ground water reserves of these districts have shown a decrease of 57.7 million cubic meters, 39.5 million cubic meters and 38.5 million cubic meters respectively during the thirty years. A similar trend in ground water reserves has been observed in Samastipur, Katihar and Purnia districts in the months before and after the monsoon. The highest decline in groundwater reserves before the monsoon has been recorded at 63.6 million cubic meters and 63.1 million cubic meters. At the same time, the highest drop in ground water reserves after monsoon has been recorded at 289 million cubic meters and 216 million cubic meters. The main reason for this is the lack of rainwater not reaching the ground water level due to heavy reduction in the amount of rain, damaged canal system, excess irrigation than boring method, lack of rainwater harvesting schemes. Experts say that it is considered safe to remove up to 70 percent of the ground water of any place. Drawing more water than that is an invitation to crisis. Because much less water can get inside the ground than the water is extracted from that place. Today, per capita water availability is also declining annually in Bihar. This was 1594 cubic meters in 2001, which has come down to 1273 cubic meters in 2011. The situation remained the same and if we have not yet worked out the ways to overcome this crisis, then in the year 2025 this availability is expected to fall to 1006 cubic meters and by 2050 to 635 cubic meters. According to a 2018 report, there were 10,242 government tubewells in the state. Out of these only 5077 tube wells were operational. The government was talking about handing them over to private hands, citing the shortage of pump drivers. This will lead to the government’s move towards migration and its loot of farmers through its privatization of irrigation facilities in future. The main sources of irrigation in the state are canals. Wells, tube wells and ponds are other major sources of irrigation. These canals are mainly in Bhojpur, Buxar, Rohtas, Gaya, Aurangabad, Patna, Munger, Saharsa, Madhepura, Darbhanga, Sitamadhi, Muzaffarpur and Champaran districts. The following canals are important in terms of irrigation. (1) The total length of canals drawn from the Son River near the Dehri in the Son Canal is 1600 km and the irrigated area is 5,35,530 hectares. These canals irrigate Bhojpur, Buxar and Rohtas in the west and Patna Aurangabad, Jehanabad and most areas of Gaya district in the east. (2) Triveni Canal 377 km long canal has been constructed by dam on the Gandak River which irrigates 85,980 hectares of East and West Champaran. (3) The Gandak Canal is irrigated in Champaran, Chhapra, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga districts of Bihar through canals drawn from Balmikinagar near Triveni Dam. (4) Under the agreement reached with the Government of Nepal in 1954, the Western Kosi and East Kosi Canals have been constructed by constructing a dam on the Kosi river near Bhimnagar. The Kosi canal system irrigates about 9.96 lakh hectares of land in Supaul, Saharsa, Madhepura, Purnia and Araria districts. JETIR1904S31 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 1567 © 2019 JETIR April 2019, Volume 6, Issue 4 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) (5) Kamla Canal is a canal drawn from the Kamala River flowing in the northern part of Darbhanga district. It mainly irrigates farming in Madhubani district. (6) 37532 hectares of land in Bhagalpur and Munger are irrigated by the canal discharged from the Vadua reservoir. The historic Son Canal System of Bihar was built by the British in the first freedom movement of 1857, fearing the militant participation of the farmers of this region. Similarly, the British built the Ganga Canal system in Meerut and western Uttar Pradesh, the major centers of that rebellion. Today, this historic Son canal system, which is the lifeline of the longest and most fertile land in Bihar, is dying due to lack of maintenance. Canals are being broken in places, silt is filling in them, somewhere in the name of roads or other development works, they are being bridged and their boarder is being reduced. The same has happened to our other canal systems and dams. This has made these schemes unable to deliver water to their target areas. The result is that up to 13.35 lakh hectares of the irrigated area of Bihar recorded in government records, agricultural land connected to canal systems is facing drought in the absence of irrigation water. Today, in many areas connected to these canals, farmers are being forced to enter the movement to get water to dry crops. But the state government does not see any blueprint for concrete plans for its solution. Reduced rainfall in the state, indiscriminate use of tube wells, lack of water to the last mile in these canal systems and their other use by bridging the already existing ponds and ponds have significantly affected the ground water level in Bihar. Handpumps and tube wells have started releasing water in many areas. Two-thirds of Bihar’s land, which has been exposed to continuous drought in one-third of its area, is also affected by floods. The flood of rivers coming mainly from Nepal brings a lot of destruction in the state every year. The 28 districts of the state are permanently flood affected. About 2.5 lakh hectares of agricultural land is waterlogged. Bihar alone accounts for about 17.2 percent of the total flood affected area of India. Bihar accounts for 12 percent of the total flood damage in the country. Similarly, Bihar accounts for 21 percent of the country’s flood-affected population every year. The river Ganges flows almost through the state. The plain of North Bihar is the flow site of the rivers Ghaghra, Gandak, Budhi Gandak, Bagmati, Adhwara, Kamla, Kosi and Mahananda. At the same time, the seven rivers of Karmnasha, Son, Punpun, Kiul-Harohar, Vadua, Chandan and Cheer rivers are the rivers flowing through the Gangetic plains in Bihar.